


A Preview—

by Nation_Ustria



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Android Zane, Angst, Big Brother Kai (Ninjago), Elemental Magic, God Lloyd Garmadon, Human Cole, Human Jay Walker, Human Kai, Human Nya, Kid!Lloyd, Kidnapping, Lloyd Garmadon Angst, Lloyd Garmadon Needs a Hug, Lloyd Garmadon is a Trouble Magnet, Preview, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:22:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29937510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nation_Ustria/pseuds/Nation_Ustria
Summary: —of a very long AU I have planned but am not currently writing as I already have enough WIPs. If people are interested I will write it out in the future.Since the beginning of time, the Oni and the Dragons—godly beings of pure destruction and creation—have been at war. Only the FSM, a being of both powers, was able to put an end to it, but once he passed on the war picked up again.Millennia later, the heir to the FSM’s power was born to a happily exiled Oni with Dragon ancestry and a human woman. But after Garmadon got yanked back into the war, seven-year-old Lloyd had to run for his life without knowing why, living on the streets as both Dragon and Oni sought make him their weapon. Protected only by the barrier constructed by his uncle to protect the last human city from the war and mostly-dormant powers that he didn’t know he had, Lloyd eventually found safety in a handful of kind strangers. He didn’t mean to, but he chose those people as his Elementals, linking their souls to his and endowing them with elemental powers—and pulling them into the war that he will eventually end, one way or another.Except Lloyd’s only seven, can’t control his power, and his Elementals have no idea what’s happening either.
Relationships: Cole & Lloyd Garmadon & Kai & Nya & Jay Walker & Zane, Kai & Jay Walker, Lloyd Garmadon & Kai, Lloyd Garmadon & Lord Garmadon, Lord Garmadon/Misako (Ninjago)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	A Preview—

**Author's Note:**

> So. Uh. I actually have this entire AU planned out (how? I have no idea) but my goal is to work on my current WIPs first (I should have Ruby Eyes done and a new update for From a Laboratory—finally—soon. Fingers crossed). I probably just should have stuck with planning them, but my ADHD brain said no.  
> As this is a preview, not everything’s gonna be explained, and this little bit that I did write would probably be a handful of chapters in.  
> IMPORTANT NOTES: In this AU, all of the ninja get all of their powers directly from Lloyd. There was no inheriting of them or anything. Lloyd didn’t know what he was doing when he chose them as his Elementals—or even that he was choosing them as his Elementals—but did so instinctively, as the FSM chose his own Elementals to fight alongside him when he initially put an end to the war. Uh, another important thing—the war mostly takes place in a different plane of reality where both Dragons and Oni are like godly beings. Think abstract. It’s only in Ninjago (which the FSM made) that they have physical forms. Oni look like Oni, while only the most powerful dragons actually look like dragons—most dragons look like (aka are) serpentine (. . . So Pythor is technically a Dragon in this). They have a lot less power in mortal forms, and as Wu (exiled Dragon) used all his power to put a barrier around Ninjago City (aka the only human city left in Ninjago as the others were destroyed in the crossfire. It’s a very big city) to keep all humans from dying they have even less power inside city bounds.  
> When I actually write the full fic, there’ll be a lot more explanation of the background. Anywho.  
> Uhh. Apologies for typos.
> 
> Enjoy!

It took Jay longer than it should have to find the blacksmith shop, but he was too busy fuming to care. What was important was that he _did_ find it—eventually—and that Kai was there when he did.

Kai had his back to Jay when Jay entered, hammering something out on the forge, but Jay didn’t bother wasting any time.

“What’s _wrong_ with you?!”

Kai started, swearing as the red-hot blade clattered to the ground. He set his hammer on the anvil and bent slightly, as if intending to pick it up, but seemed to change his mind as he straightened to glare at Jay. 

Jay didn’t give him a chance to respond. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong—you’re a selfish jerk who doesn’t care about anybody but himself!”

“That’s _not_ true!” Kai snarled.

“Then _why’d_ you leave us?! Why did you leave _him_ —he needs you!”

“I didn’t ask to get soul-bonded to a god!” Kai roared, his hands fisted at his sides.

Jay took a step forward. “Yeah, well, newsflash— _none_ of us did! But the rest of us— _including Nya_ —are willing to do our part, and yet he’s still hurting because of _you_ —”

“ _He shouldn’t have chosen me then!_ ” Kai snatched the hammer and chucked it at Jay, who squawked and ducked away from it, rolling further into the shop.

“It’s not like he knew what he was doing!” Jay shouted back as he dodged something else Kai threw at him. “We were just the ones who helped him, who made him feel _safe_ —”

“ _I. Don’t. Care!_ ”

“You _should!_ ” Jay tripped just as Kai hurled something else—a poker?—at him, which meant that he couldn’t duck out of the way. He didn’t have enough time to be afraid before something inside of him reacted reflexively and lightning was bursting out of him with a _crack_ , knocking the poker away. 

Kai yelped, stumbling out of range, but he wasn’t deterred. “ _Why?_ ” he shouted. “Why in the _everloving name_ of the First Master should _I care about that thing?!_ ”

Jay’s vision went red. “That ‘thing’ is a _seven-year-old!_ ”

“ _He is a freaking_ _god!_ ”

“He’s a _human_ —well, _half_ -human _child_ with the _power_ of a god who can barely even _access_ it, let alone knows how to use it properly!”

“He knows enough to put _emotions inside of me_ _that_ _aren’t mine!_ ”

That blindsided Jay. “Wait, what?”

Kai growled, shoving his fingers through his hair. “He—I don’t know how to explain it! It’s just—” He pressed his other hand to his chest. “He puts emotions in me! And I know they’re not mine, because they’re different and wrong and—he does it intentionally! And I—I’m _not_ going to be his plaything!”

Jay blinked, processing. Lloyd could do that? But also, _why_ would he do that? It didn’t make any sen—

Wait.

“What type of emotions?” Jay asked. His voice came out surprisingly steady, considering that he’d been screaming just moments before.

Kai scowled, looking away.

“ _Kai_.”

“What, do you want a list?” Kai snapped.

“It’d be a good start,” Jay replied, folding his arms.

Kai stared resolutely at the wall for a few more moments before he sighed. He tugged at his hair again, frustration filling his expression. “I, uh—sadness, sometimes. Anxiety. That’s a big one, and it’s _really_ annoying ‘cause I’m not an anxious person. Happiness sometimes? Which I don’t really understand. Uh, there’s another one that I haven’t really been able to place—it’s like self-righteous anger, but also not? I don’t know. It makes me antsy.”

Oh. 

Jay’s heart broke a little more. “Would ‘protectiveness’ fit?”

Kai’s gaze snapped to him. “Actually, yeah. How did you—”

“Kai,” Jay interrupted. “Lloyd just wants you to _care about_ _him_.”

*****

Kai stared at him, his thoughts screeching to a halt. “Wait, _what?_ How did you get _that_ from—”

“Think back to when you felt what,” Jay instructed, his expression sober. “And I think . . . I think you’d find that you felt the good stuff when you were around him, and more of the bad stuff when you weren’t?”

. . . Actually, yeah. That was how it’d been—the weird, bubbling happiness appeared in his chest whenever he was in the same room as the kid and was replaced by the painful band on his lungs and a buzzing restlessness whenever he left—the same things he was feeling now. Kai had obviously noticed the pattern—how could he not have?—but he’d thought that the kid was trying to manipulate him—to _control_ him.

“Wait,” Kai stammered, disbelieving. “Hold up. He’s . . . he’s just trying to get me to _like_ him?”

“Ever since he’s bonded with us you’ve been cold to him,” Jay answered. “And it’s not exactly a secret that he cares for you the most out of all of us.”

That hit Kai like a brick to the chest. “He _what?!_ ”

“Have you really not noticed?” Jay snapped, irritation creeping back into his voice. “You’re his favorite, Kai! He wants you to care about him!”

“And so he tries to manipulate me with fake emotions?” Kai snapped back. There wasn’t as much heat in it as he’d intended there to be, though—he was too busy reeling, his mind putting together the puzzle pieces that he’d been too stubborn to see before. The way Lloyd always asked for his opinion on something first. The way he’d lit up like Kai had given him the world when it’d only been a comment that could barely pass as a compliment. How he’d always hover nearby if he wasn’t doing something with the others, and sometimes even then. The way he’d turn away, hiding his face in his hood whenever Kai had brushed him off.

“He probably doesn’t even know that he’s doing it,” Jay countered earnestly, his voice tinted with sadness. “He’s a kid with zero control over his power—he just wants you to _like_ him.”

Kai blindly reached out to the counter behind him, using it to steady himself as nausea made his stomach twist. There was still anger burning under his skin, though—anger at _not having a choice_. Lloyd had chosen for him, had forced power into him so that Kai could—could what? Fight for him in a few years when Lloyd was actually old enough to join the war—the _war between gods_ —that he was apparently going to stop? To be his—his what, his follower? To maybe _die?_ And what would he be until then, a glorified babysitter?

No. _No way_.

“Get out,” Kai growled.

Jay’s expression—which had been slowly gaining hope as Kai sorted through his thoughts—crumpled. “Kai, _please_ —”

“Get OUT!” Kai roared, blindly grabbing the closest thing on the counter and hurling it at him. Jay squeaked, dodging as another bolt of lightning knocked the—crap, had Kai just thrown a _knife?_ —away. Kai probably should’ve felt guilty, but instead the reminder that Jay had actually aligned with the kid—accepting even _more_ godly power that turned him into a weapon—just served to infuriate him further. “ _OUT!_ ”

Jay darted out of the shop, throwing one last pleading look Kai’s way as Kai stalked to the door. Kai scowled at him, and Jay’s expression hardened into anger just before Kai slammed the door shut.

Kai swore under his breath, spinning and storming back to the anvil. The blade he’d been working on earlier still lay on the ground, the red-hot glow having faded away—it was worthless now. Kai swore again, picking it up with practiced ease and throwing it—maybe a bit harder than needed—at the scrap pile in the corner.

Kai briefly debated starting a new blade, but quickly dismissed the idea. There was no way that he’d be able to focus—not with his anger and the unnatural anxiety pulsing through him in time with his heartbeat. So he shuttered the forge and made his way into the kitchen, still fuming.

Kai had just decided to get himself something cool to drink when a wave of new emotion slammed into him. He stumbled, grabbing onto the back of one of the kitchen chairs to keep himself from falling as his vision went black, gasping at the sheer amount of _terror_ that was pouring through him. It was cold and wild and paralyzing and it _hurt_ , and it was _real_ —actual, true terror, not a fake imitation like the emotions Lloyd had been forcing into Kai.

Except it wasn’t Kai’s.

Which meant that it was the _kid’s_.

Kai’s instinctive reaction was to try to figure out was wrong, reaching back through the bond that the emotion was coming from—

_Laughter. Low, hissing laughter that was loud in his ear. Whoever was holding him tightened their grip, one of their hands muffling his desperate screams. He was thrashing but it wasn’t of any use, his captor was so much bigger and stronger than him and whatever they’d snapped around his wrist had put a wall between him and what little power he’d figured out how to use—_

Lloyd. It was Lloyd, Kai was seeing through his eyes, hearing his thoughts—

Lloyd was being kidnapped. He was being taken, and he was _terrified_.

Where were the others? And who was taking him? Who’d target a ki—

 _“Hush now,” Lloyd’s captor growled as they slipped into a tunnel, a hiss accenting their words. “And stop struggling. You don’t want to get hurt now, do you, little godling?”_ The words weren’t in the human tongue—Kai could understand them through Lloyd—which meant that it was a dragon in its mortal “serpentine” form.

_A dragon had Lloyd._

Kai silently cursed a blue streak—and then realized that Lloyd had stiffened in surprise.

_‘Kai?’_

Kai started at the kid’s voice in his head, especially as Lloyd hadn’t actually spoken out loud—he’d just _thought_ it, desperately shoving it in Kai’s direction.

 _‘Kai, help me, please help me,’_ Lloyd begged as he was dragged even further into darkness. His mental voice was strained, somewhere in between panicking and crying. _‘Help me Kai, please, help me!’_

Deja vu slapped Kai in the face, reminding him of that first night, months back, when he’d found the kid crying similar words as he hung off of a fire escape by merely his jacket, battered and bloody. Kai hadn’t known that he was anything more than human then, but that hadn’t mattered—it was a kid in trouble, of _course_ he was going to help. And if he’d tracked down the group of tweens that had beat the kid up and thoroughly wiped the cement with them, that had just been a bonus.

 _‘Kai, please,’_ Lloyd sobbed.

That’s when it finally clicked.

He was just a kid.

Lloyd was _just a kid_.

He hadn’t asked for this any more than Kai had, and right now he was being kidnapped by someone who would hurt him.

_He was a kid._

And Kai would tear the moon out of the sky before he’d let anything happen to him.

Kai sucked in a sharp gasp as something inside of him seemed to explode, a burning, powerful heat rushing through his body and pulling him away from Lloyd’s perspective. He blinked a few times to clear the blur from his vision as he swayed, overwhelmed—and looked down to find that his hands were on fire. Kai yelped, stumbling backwards, then his brain finally registered that it didn’t hurt. Quite the opposite, in fact—it felt _good_ , the flames a warm, comforting presence around his fingers. 

He’d aligned with Lloyd.

Kai was yanked back into Lloyd’s perspective by Lloyd screaming both out loud and mentally as his captor stepped off a ledge.

 _‘KAI!’_ Lloyd shrieked desperately.

 _‘I’m coming!’_ Kai shoved back at him, filling the words with as much reassurance as possible. _‘I’m coming, I promise, just hang on!’_

Lloyd let out a sob of relief, but then he and his captor landed and the jar of the impact knocked Lloyd out. Kai flinched as the connection was broken, leaving him with only his own emotions. The powerful heat was still burning inside of him, though, proving that Lloyd was still alive.

Kai swore, mentally scrabbling together what little information he had. He thought he recognized where Lloyd had been abducted from, and from that he could guess where he’d been taken, but where were the others? Why hadn’t they been with him?

Well, Jay had been here, yelling at him, so that accounted for one. But the other four—including _Nya_ —should’ve been with him, not to mention Sensei Wu! 

That didn’t matter right now. What mattered was Lloyd, was getting him back and making sure he was safe—as safe as he could be, anyways.

Kai swore again, then held out his hands in front of him. He was going to be going up against _gods_ to get Lloyd back—albeit gods in mortal form with limited powers, but still, they were _gods_ —which meant that he needed everything he could get. The flames had vanished a few minutes ago, but Kai focused on the heat under his skin, calling on it.

Fire burst to life in his hands.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know if you’re interested in this :)
> 
> A quick explanation to make this scene a bit clearer—Kai “aligning” was basically him getting his true potential, which magic-wise meant that he had opened his soul-bond to Lloyd from his end, allowing him to access the full extent of his elemental power.  
> . . . Let me know if there’s anything else that needs to be explained for this to make sense. Also if you have any question in general, I’d love to hear ‘em.  
> :)


End file.
